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WHAT'S DOING IN ANKARA

-------------------------------------------------------------------- MARVINE HOWE is chief of the Ankara bureau of The New York Times. By MARVINE HOWE

ATATURK'S CITY - Modern Turkey begins with Mustafa Kemal, the founder and first president of the Turkish Republic, who is more commonly known as Ataturk - Father of the Turks. It was Ataturk who made Ankara his capital, turning his back on Istanbul and its Ottoman associations. Ankara, an isolated village in the Anatolian steppes, had been the center of resistance to foreign invading forces even before the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923; it was the strategic heart of the country.

Ankara was deliberately planned to be the capital of a secular, westernized state, although it has a 3,000-year history and was the site of seven ancient civilizations. This is not an Islamic capital - although most of its inhabitants are Moslems - but an essentially European city, where young women promenade freely and look you in the eye, where Western art and music abound and where the only constraints on alcohol are those imposed by currency problems. There are 2.5 million inhabitants, 70 percent of whom live in self-built housing in the outlying districts.

Downtown Ankara is quiet, restful and generally safe. Heavily armed policemen are a prominent part of the street scene, but they should not frighten visitors since their presence acts as a strong deterrent to trouble.

There is a 1 A.M. to 5 A.M. curfew here (as all over Turkey), imposed by the military when they took over last September. There are also daily (except Sunday) power cuts, at present from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M., although the hours could change.

WEATHER - Spring and fall, when days are warm and evenings cool, are the best times to visit Ankara. Summers can be hot, and airconditioning is rare. Winters are to be avoided - fog hovers around the city, snow and ice frequently disrupt traffic and dense smog covers the lower part of the city, where lignite is burned instead of costly heating oil.

GETTING AROUND - Although Ankara is Turkey's capital, there are no direct flights to it from the United States, and only limited direct service between Ankara and such European cities as Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels and Moscow. Most visitors must come by way of Istanbul, through one of the world's dowdiest and most uncomfortable airports, and take often irregular Turkish airlines to Ankara.

Once in Ankara, however, the going is good. Taxis are plentiful, though the rate from the airport - $15 to $17.50 -is a bit stiff. In town, taxis are reasonable, and the average fare should be no more than $2. The dolmus, or collective taxi, is also popular, making regular stops for rates of 15 to 20 cents. Buses are not recommended because of overcrowding.

Several downtown travel agents offer half-day tours of the city for between $8 and $10. Such tours visit the Citadel, with its Byzantine fortifications, the nearby Roman ruins, the Hittite Museum, Ataturk's Mausoleum and the residential Cankaya section, with the presidential palace and embassies. Full-day tours, with a visit to Ataturk's Farm, are also available.

GREENERY - Ataturk loved green spaces and his town is full of trees. There are several parks; the most popular is Genclik (Youth) Park, which has teahouses by an artificial lake and an amusement park.

About five miles out of town is Ataturk Orman Ciftligi (Ataturk's Farm), a model farm that Ataturk laid out in 1925 to show his countrymen that the arid Anatolian plain could flower with modern farming methods.

Today the farm provides a welcome breathing space for smog-choked Ankara, with picnic sites, restaurants and cafes, a luxury hotel, a brewery and beer garden, a winery, a handsome antique railroad station and a dairy and farm store with the best ice cream, yogurt, milk and cheese around. There is also a compact zoo, with the usual assortment of lions, tigers, elephants and monkeys and fine examples of the local Anatolian fauna: fluffy white angora cats with one amber and one blue eye, pheasants, goats and fierce-looking falcons.

CULTURAL EVENTS - Ataturk planned to make Ankara the cultural as well as the political capital of his country. The season runs from October to May in the five state theaters and state concert hall; tickets go for as little as 50 cents.

The Ankara State Opera and Ballet present performances at the Opera House, sometimes called the Buyuk Tiyatro (Grand Theater) on Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 and on Saturday afternoons at 3. The repertory is a varied one, from modern Turkish works to ''La Boheme'' and ''Swan Lake.'' There will also be a special program on April 23 as part of the festivities marking Ataturk Year, the celebration of the centennial of Mustafa Kemal's birth.

The State Theater Company, which shares the Opera House, schedules performances on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday evenings at 8; there are 40 plays in this year's repertory, among them ''King Lear,'' ''Tartuffe'' and Arthur Miller's ''All My Sons.'' All are performed in Turkish.

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The Presidential Symphony Orchestra holds concerts regularly in its Concert Hall Friday evenings at 8:30 and Saturday mornings at 11. The remaining programs of the season feature works by Saint-Saens, Bartok, Weber, Mozart and Strauss.

The Turkish-American Association usually shows American films Thursday evenings at 8 and sponsors weekly concerts, lectures and exhibits. A series of lectures on Turkish archeology, sponsored by the American Research Institute in Turkey, is scheduled on Wednesdays, April 15 through May.

The Turkish-French Cultural Association will offer a recital of French songs on April 3 and a jazz concert on April 27, as well as films Monday and Friday evenings at 6:30 and 8:30. The Turkish-British Association and the Italian Culture Association also have films and concerts open to the public.

MUSEUMS - Ataturk was the founder of the Hittite Museum, which is now known as the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. The museum, which is located in a restored 15th-century bazaar and caravansary near the Citadel, contains archeological findings from Paleolithic to Hellenistic times, among them the finest collection of Hittite and p2e-Hitti4e artif!cts in 4he coun4ry.

T(e Ankar! Ethnog2aphic M5seum, w(ich was opened )n 1930, is one /f the f)rst mus%ums of 4he Turk)sh Repu'lic. He2e, in t(e Hall /f Honor, Atatur was te-poraril9 buried after h)s death in 1938. There !re disp,ays of eljuk a.d Ottom!n wood 7/8arving, Ottoman manuscr)pts and tapestr)es and natol)an clot(ing and jewelry, as wel, as mem%ntos of the Dervish sect that Ataturk abolished in 1924.

Next to the Ethnographic Museum, in a restored guild hall, is Ankara's new Museum of Modern Art and Sculpture, opened by former president Fahri Koruturk on April 2, 1980. It contains works by the father of modern Turkish art, Seker Ahmet Pasa, and other contemporary artists.

Ataturk's Mausoleum and Museum is across town, standing high on a hill surrounded by gardens. A triumphal way bordered by 24 neo-Hittite lions leads to the mausoleum where Ataturk was finally buried in 1953. The museum contains his medals, swords and other memorabilia.

Ataturk's so-called Old House, on the grounds of the presidential palace in the Cankaya district, can be seen from the road but is at present closed to the public.

SHOPPING - Ankara is a shopper's delight. Most Turkish goods - from rugs and leather to pottery and embroidery - can be found here, often at better prices than in the villages where they are made.

The best gold and silver shops are located off Anafartalar Street in the Ulus quarter, near the Citadel, sometimes in such arcades as the Talas Passage. Gold is sold by weight, sometimes under the world price (the exquisite workmanship is free). All kinds of copper and brassware can be found in small shops at Samanpazari nearby.

Sakarya, a pedestrian shopping area in the Kizilay section, is a pleasant place to browse, especially in the spring, when restaurants and cafes set up tables outside. Here are spice shops, fruit and nut shops (Turkey is the home of pistachios and hazelnuts) and basketware.

There are good clothing stores nearby on Ataturk Boulevard. Try Vakko (with an art gallery), Bravo, Dolfin, Beymen and Igs. In the same district, Turk el Sanatlari has Turkish crafts, with miniature wooden musical instruments for about $2, framed embroideries for as low as $4, ceramics from $3 to $30. For leather goods (still a good buy in Turkey), Antilop, at Sakarya, and Moda Canta, nearby on Izmir Street, have reasonably priced bags, wallets and suitcases.

The main modern shopping street is Tunali Hilmi. There, El Sanatlari has meershaum pipes, brasswork and onyx vases; Model and Altay have leather, suede and sheepskin jackets for $100 to $125. Mangal, on the other uptown shopping street, Cinnah, has quality brass, copper and meershaum pipes; Artisan, just down the street, has crafts but is above all an art gallery with exhibitions of works by a different Turkish artist every month.

For serious shoppers, Anatolian rugs can be a good investment. Prices vary according to the number of knots per square meter, material, demand and age. A wool Dosemealti from north of Antalya, with red, blue, green and white geometrical designs may cost as little as $100 the square meter; a silk Hereke, the finest of Turkish rugs, with as many as 1,250,000 knots to the square meter, is priced at about $2,000 and up. Some reliable rug shops a2e Sark ali Paz!ri, in 4he Ulus quarter; Noras, at Cank!ya; and Bergama Hali Pa:ari and Sefer S!mmas, b/th on A4aturk B/ulevard. NIGHT IFE - nkara's night l)fe was .ever ex 7/8iting, !nd it h!s faded conside2ably si.ce the 7/8urfew.

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A version of this article appears in print on April 5, 1981, on Page 10010011 of the National edition with the headline: WHAT'S DOING IN ANKARA. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe